In the final installment of a three-part interview, Philip Buckingham puts the questions to Hull City vice chairman Ehab Allam over the club’s summer recruitment and prospects of a Premier League return.

Philip Buckingham: We’re a quarter of the way into the new season, how satisfied are you with how it’s gone?

Ehab Allam: Behind the scenes I’m very satisfied. We might not have achieved the results we wanted in certain games but I like Leonid. He’s a nice guy, very personable and experienced. He’s got a winning mentality, very passionate. I think fans can see that he wears his heart on his sleeve.

I’ve never known anyone pace up and down the touchline so much but it shows he cares about the club and the game. That’s endearing. I think it’s going well. I like his style of football. The club has a playing philosophy now. We’ve recruited managers with that in mind. Not just Leonid but Marco (Silva) before him.

The recruitment of the manager is based upon the club’s aspirations and how we want to play football. That then leads into the recruitment of players as well. We have a lot of youth in the squad and perhaps a bit of inexperience. Errors have cost us games but that’s part and parcel of players bedding in. We had a switch in formation to try and rectify that but it didn’t work so we’ve gone back to a formation that’s produced some of our best performances. I still think we’ll have a very good season.

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When you appointed Leonid and after the window closed, you made it clear you wanted to target promotion this season. Have you got a squad capable of that?

Yes, definitely. The quality is there in the squad. If you’ve watched our games and seen our performances, I think most people would say we have it in us to get up into the top six by the end of the season. Individual errors have cost us in some games but that’s the price you pay for bringing in youngsters.

You expect to reap more rewards once they’ve bedded in. In general, all the youngsters have done a fantastic job. You look at Jarrod (Bowen) and he’s been amazing. Max (Clark) as well has done really well considering this is his first season at this level. It’s still too early in the season to make any judgements on this team.

How do you reflect on the summer rebuild that’s just finished?

I think we’ve sold very well. If you look at the valuations we’ve achieved for certain players, we sold very well. I think we’ve done pretty well on the purchases as well and bringing people through the academy.

Did you envisage losing the players you did?

There were the obvious ones who would go. When Leonid first started I told him not to rely on the following four players: Sam Clucas, Harry Maguire, Abel Hernandez and Andy Robertson.

I was correct on all four but with Hernandez for the wrong reasons. I knew they wouldn’t sign new contracts and I knew there’d be interest from the Premier League. I kept saying to Leonid ‘Don’t try and convince me, I don’t need convincing to keep them.

You need to convince them.’ Obviously we had situations that were difficult. I knew they’d be the ones we’d struggle to hold on to and understandably so. There’s an attraction to the Premier League and you can’t force someone to stay with you if he doesn’t want to be here.

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You might have expected certain players to go but which ones were you disappointed to lose?

Tom Huddlestone was my favourite player. I really didn’t want him to go. We offered him more than what he is on at Derby but that’s close to where his family is from and that’s where he started his football. I can understand why he wanted to go back to his roots but it was still tough to see him go. It isn’t always about the money for some players.

This club made somewhere in the region of £25m-£30m of profit in the transfer market. Did you always set out to recoup that kind of money?

I had a target to achieve to make the books balance. There was still players we were paying for from the previous summer. When you buy a player, you don’t pay everything up front. It’s staged installments. Ryan Mason, for example, was our biggest ever signing but that was paid between last summer and this summer.

We still had big payments to pay. The same as a player signed in January, such as (Kamil) Grosicki. We sold players in January as well but there was significant loan wages to cover. Our highest paid player last season on loan was on £90,000 a week.

It’s easy to say we took the transfer money in January and didn’t reinvest but it was reinvested in wages and loan fees. We paid a £2.5m loan fee so that soon eats up transfer fees. Pro-rata, including national insurance, that was £7.5m committed for a loan player. I’m not sure people appreciate the cost of being in the Premier League. Yes, the income is massive but the costs are equally as high.

One criticism levelled at you when the club’s best players were leaving was that you were asset-stripping. How would you respond to that?

Unfortunately they don’t understand the financial elements of the industry. They might see it as asset stripping but look at our wage bill compared to our income. There’s a shortfall every year.

There’s a benefactor model or you fund it through player sales. Asset stripping? No chance. If you look at our gate receipts in a season, it’s roughly £6m a year. If I’m selling a player to make up a shortfall, is that asset stripping? I don’t think so. Football in general relies on a benefactor model, either from a benefactor or players sales.

You’ve mentioned the ownership model, how has that changed during your time at the club?

There was a time when we were investing in the club and looking to push it on. With the fall-out with supporters and our position with selling, that’s reflected in the family’s aspirations to invest. Now we’re looking at the club being self-financing rather than investing our own money?

You look at someone like Middlesbrough owner Steve Gibson, he said he wanted to “smash the Championship” and invested accordingly. What was your strategy post-relegation?

Actions speak louder than words. Saying something like that, all you’re going to do is increase your costs. A statement like that means you’re likely to end up paying more than you have to. You can intend to smash the league without saying that and paying inflated prices. I can’t imagine any owner not wanting to smash the league. I’d rather be sensible with my spending rather than making grand gestures.

Chairman of Middlesbrough Steve Gibson

What would you say to the supporters who were disappointed in the investment made in the first team?

What’s the measure of disappointment? I don’t know how each fan has reacted.

You’ve been to away games. Supporters sing “Where’s the money gone?”

Isn’t that what all fans say when they want more. If you’ve watched our displays we’ve played well. We are playing attacking, exciting football and scoring a lot of goals. I don’t think it’s about the level of investment, it’s more a reflection of the relationship between fans and owners. It’s an easy throwaway comment. Have we sold well? Yes. Have we bought well? Yes. Is the club well-run financially? Yes.

In terms of looking after the club in our ownership, I think we’re doing a good job. In terms of relations with supporters, I understand there’s a strange relationship and comments will reflect that rather than the manager and the job he’s doing.

Why was recruitment left so late again?

Recruitment was left late to accommodate the manager’s wishes and requests. We’d identified certain players, such as at Chelsea. They all came good in the end but it was uncomfortable waiting. We’d lost targets waiting for certain players but the manager was confident his choices would happen. We wanted to support that.

Hull City's new head of recruitment Lee Darnbrough (Image: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lee-darnbrough-b8279917/)

Can you explain what’s changed now you’ve got a head of recruitment in Lee Darnbrough?

We’d moved away from the traditional methods before this summer. We’ve gone with head coaches rather than managers. We have a different approach.

You still need the traditional recruitment but it needs to dovetail with more modern techniques. Lee’s official title is head of strategic analysis and recruitment so it’s not just recruitment. It’s the longer term strategic planning of the club, the team, how we want to play.

Where does Oleg Yaovinsky, the club’s new head of strategy, fit into this?

The application of the strategy and how best to implement that into performances. We have a club strategy, a club style and we’re looking to translate that into performances on the pitch, training methods, playing methods. He’s translating theory into practice.

Is Oleg very much the manager’s man given how well they know each other?

He’s the manager’s man but he’s very much a club man as well. I like Oleg a lot. There’s a future for him here regardless.